Interesting studio/filmmaker juju rumor going around, spearheaded by London’s The Guardian, concerning Baz Luhrmann’s newest epic, Australia. We hear that the ending of the film had some tonal issues during test screenings and after a spirited discussion, Luhrmann has agreed to make the ending more happy.

We’ll let you know about the SPOILER below the cut if you want, but until then, The Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York held a gala in honor of Baz Luhrmann yesterday, and though the man didn’t walk the photo-line, Hugh Jackman did. Also, Rachel Weisz was in attendance looking beautiful, so we tacked those photos up here as well. Beautiful women is just how we roll…

Oh, you wish to be SPOILED, do you?

From The Guardian:

The film stars Kidman as an English aristocrat who inherits a cattle ranch in Australia at the start of the second world war. After rival owners plot to seize her land, she teams up with a cattle drover, played by Jackman, to lead thousands of animals across the country, only to face bombing from the Japanese.

The two fall in love during their epic journey although, in Luhrmann’s first cut, Jackman’s character later dies.

The movie will open in the US and Australia this month, and in the UK on Boxing Day, with the new, happier ending and not, as one critic described it, as “an action-filled tragedy”.

The decision has angered some Australian film fans. One wrote on Australia’s Sunday Telegraph’s website: “Baz clearly has no control of his film, or no ethics when it comes to putting the story he wanted to tell to the screen.”

The rewritten ending is latest in a series of setbacks to affect the movie.

Actor Russell Crowe originally agreed to fill Jackman’s role but pulled out, and filming was delayed by the worst weather in Western Australia in 100 years then an outbreak of equine flu. “There was nothing that could have happened that didn’t,” Luhrmann said.

[IMG: Splash]